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HILLSBOROUGH– Writer-director Thomas Baldinger said he felt comfortable during the first day on the set of his feature film debut, "Who's Jenna Jameson?" The comedy is about mistaken identity and a stalled romance between Jonathan Burke, a 40-year-old bachelor, and Jenna Casey, an attorney who looks like the famous former adult-film star.

The initial shoot was at the beautiful township home Baldinger shares with his wife of 11 years, Kelly, and their two children.

"Originally, the script was written for these guys, Joe and (his friend) Andy, to be living in an apartment," Baldinger said. "Reading the script more and more, I was like, 'These are highly successful individuals. Why are they living in a small apartment?' I think especially Jonathan's character would probably own a home, and yet he's still not married. He's 40 years old. He's a single guy. He should own a home. I rewrote the script to be a house, and then I thought, 'Well, why not just do it here?'

"It made it very familiar to work in this space. It made it a lot easier for me. I wasn't as nervous. I know I'm going to be incredibly nervous tomorrow (Thursday) because we're going to be on set in a different location. But working in the house has been relatively easy and nice."

A successful finance guy by day, Baldinger is working on the comedy while on a two-week vacation. The cast and crew of the independent film next will shoot in a bar in Jersey City, then return to Baldinger's home, as well as a Somerset County hotel for additional scenes next week.

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Baldinger said he also shot partly in his home for last year's award-winning comedy short "Two Sides of Love," whose successful run at film festivals introduced him to "Jenna" leads Bill Sorvino, nephew of "Goodfellas" star Paul Sorvino, and Tracey Birdsall ("Dawn of the Crescent Moon," "Loving"). Baldinger said he realizes he lucked out with the casting of Birdsall.

"I wrote 'Who's Jenna Jameson?' a little over two years ago, originally as a short film," Baldinger said. "I met Tracey Birdsall at the AOF Festival, so the script was already written. We were sitting at the award show. Tracey was being honored with the Maverick Award, and we were nominated in three categories. As she was walking up to get her award, I turned to my wife and said, 'I think that's our Jenna. We've found our Jenna Jameson.'

"Because it's an awards show, and there are tons of people, I only got to say hello to Tracey, so I took a shot on Facebook and sent her a direct message. I said, 'Hey, we met at the festival. You won an award. I won an award. Would you like read a script that I wrote? I think you would be perfect for this role.' "

In New Jersey for the two-week schedule of her scenes, Los Angeles-based Birdsall said her role is as fun as it is funny.

She said she wasn't surprised to be laughing at the first three pages of the script, but when she still was laughing on page 72, she wanted to be cast.

"I love this type of humor because it's exactly the type of movie that I like to go see," Birdsall said.

"When we were talking about working together, I jumped at the chance because Tom is just an awesome guy and a talented, creative guy," added Sorvino, founder of the Golden Door International Film Festival in Jersey City. "It's a very funny, interesting, clever story."

'Really big'

Sorvino also will appear this summer in a restaging of Baldinger's murder mystery, "Triple Play," which made its debut last year at Villagers Theatre in the Somerset section of Franklin. Baldinger hopes to adapt it as their second feature together.

Also appearing in "Jenna" from the gangster genre are Garry Pastore, cousin of "Sopranos" star Vincent Pastore who recently did a stint in FOX-TV's "Gotham," and Joe D'Onofrio, whose work ranges from bad guys in "Goodfellas" and "A Bronx Tale" to a comic stretch as Staten Island Mike on the TV version of Ice Cube's "Are We There Yet?" In "Jenna," D'Onofrio said he was relieved to be playing a geek instead of gangster.

"I've never really played a geek," he said. "I think this film is going to be really big. I love Tom's passion, and I love the writing.

"I just finished a movie called 'Back in the Day.' "It was like a $5 million budget. But I made a movie 10 years ago with that director (Paul Borghese) called 'Wannabe' that had a budget of only $250,000. So you never know. I could be making a $5 million movie with Tom someday."

D'Onofrio's Andy is a porn-obsessed geek who lives with Jonathan, which makes his confusion about Jenna Casey all the more interesting and hilarious, Baldinger said.

The director also won awards for "Two Sides of Love" from the Garden State Film Festival and other festivals, which led to the financing to produce "Who's Jenna Jameson?"

Raised in Middletown, Baldinger studied acting at Staten Island's Wagner College before embarking on a finance career, but family members said he's been making movies since he was in sixth grade. He has lived in Hillsborough for six years.

Brian K. Millard, a lifelong Piscataway resident until a recent move to Los Angeles, is the producer and first assistant director of "Jenna," which is expected to have its New Jersey premiere by year's end.